1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus for manufacturing a series of taped electronic components, a method for manufacturing a series of taped electronic components, an apparatus for conveying electronic components, a method for conveying electronic components, and a series of taped electronic components.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, a series of taped electronic components is known which has electronic components such as laminated capacitors housed in each concave portion of a carrier tape provided with a plurality of concave portions in the longitudinal direction (for example, JP 2008-174252 A).
In laminated capacitors, internal electrodes are stacked in one direction. Depending on whether the directions of mounting the laminated capacitors are configured as the stacking directions of the internal electrodes or as directions perpendicular to the stacking directions of the internal electrodes, electronic characteristics obtained may vary in some cases. For this reason, the series of taped electronic components is required to have the stacking directions of the internal electrodes aligned in the laminated capacitors housed in the plurality of concave portions. Therefore, it is preferable to detect the stacking directions of the internal electrodes in the laminated capacitors, and house, into the tape, the capacitors with the stacking directions of the internal electrodes aligned.
For example, JP 7-115033 A discloses a method of detecting the stacking direction of internal electrodes in a laminated capacitor by measuring a magnetic flux density that passes through the laminated capacitor.
However, the method disclosed in JP 7-115033 A has the problem of failing to detect, with a high degree of accuracy, the stacking direction of the internal electrodes in the laminated capacitor. In the laminated capacitor, downsizing is advancing, and dimensions of the internal electrodes are getting smaller. Thus, a magnetic force passing through the internal electrodes is only a small portion of all of the magnetic force of the entire magnet. A difference of magnetic force due to the difference in stacking direction of the internal electrodes of the laminated capacitor becomes smaller as downsizing of the laminated capacitor advances. Further, when the position of the laminated capacitor is misaligned, differences of magnetic force passing through the internal electrodes occur. Thus, it is hard to distinguish between magnetic force difference due to the difference of stacking direction and magnetic force difference due to the difference of positional misalignment of the laminated capacitor. Accordingly when the position of the laminated capacitor is not fixed, as in JP 7-115033 A, it is even harder to accurately detect the stacking direction of the internal electrodes. For this reason, for example, in the case of using the method disclosed in JP 7-115033 A, there is a problem that it is difficult to manufacture a series of taped electronic components in which the stacking directions of the internal electrodes are aligned with high certainty.